100 km skate and wildlife

Submitted by Marianne on Fri Aug 8 2008 4:05pm

Yesterday I skated 100 km from the Banff Gate (west of Canmore) to Castel Mountain Junction Hwy #1 and Hwy 93 in 4 hrs and 10 min. It was a beautiful day and the view like always spectacular. (Check out the pictures on Google Earth.) My husband met me at the half way point with water and more GU ROCTANE GEL (the only gel I can take without making to much of a face) :) Needless to say, that on the way home, I had to fight some head wind. :( I had to laugh; there was a park warden with his truck on the same route checking on wildlife… Was he checking the wildlife in the woods or the one on the hwy…? He stopped at all the crossings and frequent used passages, every 10 km or so, that made me feel pretty safe. There are a lot of Bears and Cougars in the area.

Comments

Sounds like a nice skate, Marianne. Good job accomplishing 100km, and that's a right respectable time, especially for skating solo.
And yea for both the warden and your husband for looking out for you. No cougars in this area that I'm aware of, but confused bears sometimes stumble out of the woods to frighten suburban homeowners and end up on the local TV news. Other than that, we have lots of deer, which aren't very scary but are big enough to do some real damage if you hit them; lately some rabid foxes; opossums in the road, usually already dead; and of course plenty of doggies and bunnies and kitty cats.

Thanks for the notes from Canmore and wherever you go. We want more of that here. I really enjoy reading about other peoples' experiences while skating, even the daily differences. I should say that at Greensboro Country Park recently I have had occasion to skate at dusk, one lap even with my headlamp just to give it a try again. On separate days, I saw what I believe to be a hawk (not a turkey vulture, and I know this was a big multicolored brown bird) sitting very still on a fallen limb I believe it was. At first I thought this was a clump of dried leaves, in fact. What an impressive sight! This was on the outside of the loop on the downhill right bend just before the 180-degree left.
Another day, just over "baseball hill" where the road comes in from Jaycee Park (which on the old 1927 topos is called Greensboro State Park) down at the bottom of the rollout from there, I saw a buck and doe over to the right in the woods. This was where the temperature stays coolest and some days you can even feel the change, at the low-lying point where I guess there's a creek that forms the two lakes there (5A and 5B as they're named on the old maps). Anyway, this was another fine moment, and I rolled back past them to have another look, but stopping usually would send them running, so I only watched while still rolling.
So thanks for mentioning your skate, because I had meant to mention these items recently and simply forgot!

You must be a very proficient skater to make 100k in that time over mountainous terrain. The pics do look spectacular. Bears and cougars while skating are a new one on me! A few weeks back I was doing about 30mph on a downhill at a local park, admiring the 2 deer that ran off the road when they saw me coming, and I completely missed the third deer who had separation anxiety from the other two. It ran across the road about 3 feet in front of me.
So your 100km trek was not an organized event, but your very own training expedition? Cool. Were you on paved trails, or roads?

Thank you MikeB. I was as happy as a bear in the honey jar when I crossed my own finish line. I just love skating. All those Bootcamps are starting to pay off in my old age. I hope to find a fun group to skate with from A2A

Canada's Aaron Arndt and Martine Charbonneau won the men & women's 87 mile A2A last year. This might be a new trend
:-) Now if we can just steal Northinsouth away from his family for the first weekend in October...

Yep, I agree. After seeing Northinsouth on the roads this year even without much specific training, he seems as ready as ever for a good run at A2A. If he could keep training long distance from now until a week or two before A2A then taper for rest, I think he could either do a very easy run skate, or maybe better his best at about 6:33 if I recall. He's a strong dude, no doubt! Now to find a way to get him there!

Well, my first goal for 2A2 is to cross the finish-line. And my second...I think about it. My third: get to Atlanta before the sun gets too much of a chance to beat me up. BG I checked Martine Charbonneau’s time, wow she is fast! Who is Northinsouth? P.S. I am originally from Switzerland :)

Switzerland! Too cool. I have to ask now: are you from the French, Italian or German part, and do you speak all three? Do you pronounce your first name the German way or the French way? Northinsouth is a Greensboro, NC skater who moved down here from Canada a few years ago. He and Blake are credited with creating a great rapport with the organizers and getting skaters into the Tour to Tanglewood, which skaters have been able to enjoy taking part in since 1999. It's coming up on Sept 6th & 7th so if you're in the area...:-).

I grew up in the German part of Switzerland with a French Mum and a Germen-speaking Dad. I only speak a little Italian but think it is the most beautiful language in the world. My first name is pronounced any way people like to, depending what part of the country they live in. Interesting enough that our two children (20, 16) born in Canada, speak English, Swiss-German and French and are having lots of fun being able to switch back and forth. Conversations in our house are always very colorful. I already committed to a group (I have never met) to skate the 24 hrs in Montreal on the weekend of the 6/7 next month. They are in for the fun and it will be good for me to meet other skaters. Also I understand that there are a few exhibitors and I might find a pair of new skates and some other stuff. I read about the Tour to Tanglewood and it sounds like a lot of fun with a challenging course.

Great luck on the 24! It's great to have a team. The 24, A2A and Tour to Tanglewood (for some at least, each of them) can be life-altering experiences. Some come to Tour to Tanglewood and it is not enough of a race for them, and that is fine. Others come and seem to find freedom in the fact that it is not just a skating event, and it is not about skating, and it is not about us, but about people who count on us to help fund research and one-to-one, personal assistance for their Multiple Sclerosis. The cyclists and the tour make us feel really welcome and even admired, but it's the people who face this disease daily and don't give up that amaze me. Maybe some year you can come to Tour to Tanglewood or another skating event. Oh I think Brian from Austin will be at the 24 (he's done T2T) and Bryan from Wilmington (he will hopefully have his Roadskater.net jersey). Not sure about others. Skatey-mark was second last year but will be here with out Tour to Tanglewood, which is quite a sacrifice and I really appreciate him being here, as he's part of the tradition since our fourth year (this is our 10th).

NICE! 10 years that is quite a tradition you have going. I only found out about all this skating events a few years back, but was not able to attend many so far, that little thing called WORK got in the way. One year I will make it to TtoT
In 2000 I skated the Long Beach Marathon that was lots of fun I came in first in my category and 19 overall and before that the 49North in Winnipeg, Canada. Now I have more flexibility and I hope to stay healthy for a long time to be able to skate and do all the wild things I soooo love.
You are right, we have to appreciate every day we can get up, enjoy, move around without pain and able to help others.
It would be cool to meet members from roadskater.net in Montreal.
Ah, would you have a Jersey for me; I would love to buy one. I don’t know how they fit, but I would probably need an M. As for the color; I love surprises. If you have one, maybe Bryan could bring it up to Montreal, I am sure we could arrange payment. If that is not possible, I could pick it up from you in Atlanta or Athens. If all fails, I get one next year.

Hi Marianne. Would love to get one to you at the 24 but there's a wrench in the works that's too hard to explain just now. Keep a watch out for info here and on our yahoogroups.com group InlineNC. I will know more on Tuesday likely. Also we may have a reorder in the works. More on the wrench here before too long I imagine.